Unicom Parent Has 800,000 CDMA Users, a Tenth of
2002 Target
By Kenneth Wong
Hong Kong, April 9 (Bloomberg) -- China United Telecommunications Corp.,
the country's second biggest mobile-phone operator, said it had attracted
800,000 users to its three-month- old wireless system, about a tenth of its
revised full-year target.
China United signed up 280,000 users for its $2.5 billion nationwide code
division multiple access network in the three weeks ended April 7, the
company said in a statement. Still, the total was just 11 percent of its
year-end target of seven million.
``Following the increase in handsets supply and the strengthening of efforts on
sales and marketing, the number of subscribers has seen a stronger growth
since mid March,'' China United said in a statement. It said as many as
600,000 CDMA phones, and 18 different handset models, are now available.
China United marketed the network, built using Qualcomm Inc. technology, as
offering clearer call connections. It had blamed the slower-than-expected user
growth on handset shortages, while users were turned off by a lack of price
discounts. Almost all of China's 156 million cell phone users use the global
system for mobile communications, or GSM standard.
China United didn't say how many of its CDMA users belong to China Unicom
Ltd., its Hong Kong-listed unit, which leases the network in 12 wealthier
provinces. China Unicom said it had 510,000 CDMA users as of March 26.
The seven million year-end target was originally set for China Unicom. The
company later revised it, saying it was for both China United and Unicom.
China Unicom shares fell 0.7 percent today to HK$7.20. The stock has
dropped 16 percent this year, compared to a 5.8 percent decline in the
benchmark Hang Seng Index.
Capacity
China United plans to upgrade the system to a faster version this year. It said
the upgrade will also allow it to add 13 million to 15 million more subscribers.
The existing CDMA network has capacity for 15.8 million subscribers.
Last month, Unicom started giving away CDMA phones in Beijing and
Shanghai in return for subscription contracts of up to three years to boost
subscriptions. Company President Wang Jianzhou said the company would
buy 500,000 CDMA phones to encourage manufacturers to make more
phones.
Mobile-phone services in China, the world's biggest wireless market, are
provided by China United, China Mobile Communications Corp., and their
listed units in Hong Kong.
bloomberg.com
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